


Running

by pengwinn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-13
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 14:03:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1607777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pengwinn/pseuds/pengwinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running

**Author's Note:**

> Just watched the season finale, and I have to say I'm impressed. I love Outlaw/Queen, and Regina has become one of my favorites ~ and as much as I hated this move, it was a good direction to go in. It's going to make for an epic triangle next season. 
> 
> This is my reaction to that ~ what I think Regina would do. 
> 
> Obviously, spoilers abound.

She doesn't know what else to do. 

She runs. 

Not literally, not at first. Not here, in front of everyone. She has a reputation to uphold, so she holds her composure and hisses at Swan, her eyes falling again on Marian and Robin. 

Her Robin. 

Not anymore. 

That kiss feels moments ago and yet decades, eons. His lips pressed against hers, his tongue seeking entrance, twisting with hers to leave that delicious taste of woods and apples and Robin.

Robin, Robin, Robin.

She can still taste him on her tongue. 

Damn her. Damn her to hell.

Because Regina recognizes Marian the instant Swan brings her over. She was a girl that went missing from her dungeons a long time ago. A girl meant to be executed, for helping Snow. 

She had stolen his wife, ruined his happy ending. She was the evil queen, and if Emma hadn't saved Marian, Regina would have killed her. 

God, she aches. 

So she kisses Henry good night, grabs her coat and runs - no, walks - out of the diner. She waits until she's an acceptable distance away, then tears off her heels and runs. 

Her bare feet slam into pavement, stones and pebbles digging into her skin, but she runs. 

Muscles cramp in her legs, screaming for her to stop before they snap, but she runs. 

She runs until the tears streaming down her face mix with sweat and she can't tell if she's gasping for air because her lungs are burning from exertion or the sobs are taking over. 

She runs until the image of Marian's face is mixed with the faces of women and men she'd tortured and killed in her search for vengeance, and she falls to the ground in a heap in front of her apple tree. 

"Such a fool." She gasps, curling her legs up under herself and sobbing against the hard bark. "You're a villain, Regina. And villains don't get happy endings."

She ran, but she didn't listen. 

If she had, she'd have heard him coming. 

He's beside her suddenly, his hand against hers where it's been pounding into the tree. "Regina." He whispers. 

She sobs again, her whole body shaking. With grief, with remorse, with repulsion, she doesn't know. She sobs and sobs and tries to tell him no. "Robin, you don't understand. Go home - she's home, go home. You don't understand who I am, what I did-"

He doesn't listen. 

Instead he gathers her up in his arms and carries her through her back door. He carries her upstairs, to her bedroom and lays her down on the bed. 

He goes to her bathroom and grabs a cloth and washes her feet, which she realizes now are bleeding in places where broken glass must've cut her. 

And then Robin, her Robin, lays down next to her and pulls her into his side, laying her head on his chest. And he talks. 

He talks about Marian, and all that she meant to him. He talks about living without her, the pain and the grief and the sorrow. He talks about her funeral, how they'd dug an empty grave and filled it with daisies and how he cried on his knees in the dirt. 

She wants to rip her heart out and shatter it, turn herself to dust, anything to stop the ache. 

She pulls away from him but his grip won't let her. 

"I know, Regina."

She stiffens in his arms and the tears come again. She can't, she can't, she can't. 

She doesn't realize she said it out loud until he pulls her into his chest again and whispers, "Yes you can."

"Robin, if you know-"

"You're not her, Regina. You haven't been for a long time. You're so much better than her."

"How? After what I did to you how can you believe that?!" 

She's on her feet now, white fury and dark rage, roaring at herself more than him. 

"I killed your wife! Roland's mother! I took her from you! From him! I'm a monster!"

"Not anymore. That monster wouldn't have spilled tears over her life. That monster wouldn't have cried for what she'd done. You did Regina. You regret it all."

He's next to her again, hand against her jaw. 

"You found your happy ending." She whispers, eyes closing. "She's home. You have your family again." She turns from his touch. 

"Don't do that, not to me."

"Robin-"

"Marian was my wife, it's true. My first love. But I can't pretend it's where I belong."

Her breath catches, but she stays silent. 

"I loved her once, a lifetime ago it seems. But I let that part of me go. For you." His fingers feel like fire against her arm. "I can't pretend I don't love you, Regina. I'm your thief, for now and for always."

"And Marian?"

"Will find her happiness with her second chance."

He turns her in his arms and kisses her, hard and hungry and deep. She moans into his mouth, presses her body into his.

Robin, Robin, Robin. 

When she opens her eyes, her hand is on bark and her knuckles are bloody and raw. She can still taste him on her tongue. 

Robin, Robin, Robin. 

God, she aches.


End file.
